What are drugs? A drug is a substance which alters the way the body works. Drugs which affect the brain fall into four main categories: Stimulants, Sedatives, Hallucinogens and Painkillers.

What are drugs?

A drug is a substance which alters the way the body works. Drugs which affect the brain fall into four main categories: Stimulants, Sedatives, Hallucinogens and Painkillers.

Stimulants

These drugs speed up the brain and make you alert. They include Amphetamines which were used for relieving blocked noses. Cocaine is one of them, found in the leaves off certain South American plants. Coffee and tea also contain caffeine (also a stimulant). Nicotine is also a stimulant, found in tobacco.

Sedatives

These slow down the brain and make you feel sleepy. They include tranquillisers and sleeping pills. Tranquillisers have a calming effect, and are given to people with an anxiety. Some can send you asleep straight away. Alcohol is a weak sedative making people feel less-inhibited

Hallucinogens

These make you feel, hear or see something not real. These are called hallucinations. Drugs in this category include Cannabis, and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). These drugs can produce nightmares, and sometimes fatal accidents

Pain Killers

These stop you from feeling pain. They include mild drugs such as aspirin to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Sedatives

Hallucinogens

Pain Killers

These stop you from feeling pain. They include mild drugs such as aspirin to strong drugs, like heroin and Morphine, which are taken from opium (poppy seeds). Morphine is given to people who have been injured, or have a strong illness.

Why Are Drugs Dangerous?

Drugs can be helpful if they are taken under doctors orders. However, if a wrong dose is taken, it can be very harmful. There may be three main reasons for this.

Brain Function

Drugs often slow reaction time; you take longer time to respond to a stimulus. They also impair your judgement (alcohol). In an experiment 2 bus drivers were made to travel a distance, they both did it well – then they drank some whiskey, and did they journey again, both the drivers knocked down posts, where as in the 1st part they didn’t. An experienced driver also tried to get his 2.44m bus into a 2.03m gap.

Damage the body

Drugs are poisons and can kill cells. Alcohol kills cells in the Brain and liver – Prolonged drinking can cause Cirrhosis, where the liver cells are replaced by useless fibrous tissue. Aspirin can also damage the stomach lining.

Dependent on Drugs

The Body can also become dependent on drugs. Nicotine and Cannabis can become habit forming. You become psychologically dependent on the Drugs. Heroin and Alcohol are worse, if the person does not get it, the drug can produce withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting and dizziness. The person has become psychologically dependent, or addicted to the drug.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

groat

13th of Feb 2012

Quality of writing

This essay is structured well and the clear sections makes it easy to follow. I would've liked to have seen a few more scientific terms - this feels like more of a PSHE essay than a biology investigation. Spelling, punctuation and grammar are fine throughout.

Level of analysis

The analysis is sound, but could be much more detailed. For example, when discussing that cocaine is a stimulant, I would've mentioned that it increases neurotransmission across the synapses. It is key to show understanding of the effects beyond "speed up the brain and make you alert". When mentioning stimulants, I like to note they increase motivation, heart rate, blood pressure, productivity and make you feel as if you need less sleep - this enables a good link to caffeine, allowing you to comment on why it is so popular in the morning! Such links to real-world applications will gain credit. When talking about drugs being dangerous, I would've hoped the discussion would be more sophisticated. Talking about alcohol and bus drivers isn't a strong example, whereas a teenager needing their stomach pumped is. An exploration of why dependency on drugs occurs, and why it is so difficult to stop addictions, would have been a useful area to gain marks. A common flaw when students talk about addiction is that they think heroine, nicotine and alcohol are the only examples. In my opinion, discussing an addiction to caffeine shows a full understanding of dependency.

Response to question

This essay offers a solid outline to drugs and their effect on the body, however there is plenty of room for improvement. I like how the essay is structured, offering a categorisation of drugs in the introduction and then an explanation of each. I would've like to have seen an exploration of the difference between legal and illegal drugs.

Did you find this review helpful? Join our team of reviewers and help other students learn